aus_timo – Austin Metblogshttp://austin.metblogs.com
Sun, 20 May 2018 22:47:44 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.9Austin Daze Interviews ACL Producer Terry Lickonahttp://austin.metblogs.com/2006/08/20/austin-daze-interviews-acl-producer-terry-lickona/
Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:45:17 +0000http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/08/20/austin-daze-interviews-acl-producer-terry-lickona/
For its 60th issue, Austin Daze continues to score great interviews. In addition to talking to director Kevin Smith, the Daze folks conducted a Q and A with “Austin City Limits'” producer Terry Lickona (pdf), in which he reveals that Van Morrison, the Raconteurs and Cat Power will all be taping segments during or after the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

We also find from Lickona out which shows caused the most tension for the ACL staff, including a taping featuring a certain someone who’s become famous for on-stage meltdowns:

The show we did just a couple of years ago with Ryan Adams was kind of a weird experience because he was having some kind of temper tantrum that night. He couldn’t get his guitar in tune and he kept blaming the guitar tech for not doing it right. After every song he would hand his guitar back to this guy and then he would go sit there on the corner of the stage and wouldn’t say anything. And the audience is sitting there saying, “What’s up with him? What’s his problem?” And finally, at the end of the show he was
so pissed off he took his guitar–I don’t know what kind of guitar it was or how expensive it was–but he just took it and smashed it to bits on the stage and handed it to the first person in the
audience and walked straight out the door, out of the building and was gone. Nobody saw him
for the rest of the night.

Jo, Peter, and Bill may play together again by sometime next year, but without Cherilyn it is doubtful whether we will ever again call ourselves the Meat Purveyors. Considering that we already broke up once and did not play a show for two years after New Year’s Eve 1999/2000, then re-formed and recorded three more albums, it would seem that we are in bonus time anyway. It has been so much fun, and we have met so many cool people and/or hilarious characters. we have had a great run and seen a lot of places that we never would have seen.

The last time to catch ’em in Austin will be Saturday, September 9th, at the Hole in the Wall, the first club they ever played in, and their final show will take place November 4th in Brooklyn during CMJ. Hopefully, they’ll still get together for the occasional one-off gig at SXSW.

When describing the tone behind the double feature, Tarantino lamented that in the Seventies, the grind house pictures would always have posters that were much better or more exciting than the movies they advertised. With this collaboration, Tarantino promised, “We’re gonna make two sleazy grind house movies that deliver on the poster and more.” Expounding on the format, he stated, “This isn’t some Twilight Zone type of bullsh*t… This isn’t a faux double feature anymore. This is two movies for the price of one.”

The posters themselves are also quite “righteous,” with Tarantino’s simple red and white poster being reminiscent of a lost 70s Russ Meyer classic and Rodriguez’s taking a more modern “Sin City” approach. The Death Proof poster has a reference to Austin’s Burnet Road Drive-In theater, which is now occupied by a self-storage facility.

Rather than using studio methods to achieve the posters’ worn look, Rodriguez told EW his team did the old fashioned way, “by dragging it around the parking lot.”

According to the band’s publicist, no harm was done: “This is simply a misunderstanding. We were being too loud,” said Garza’s fiancée Carina Lyn through the publicist. “We apologize to the hotel guests. JoJo and I are very much in love and we are planning to be married.”

]]>Houston Businesses Try to Copy Austin Formulahttp://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/15/houston-businesses-try-to-copy-austin-formula/
http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/15/houston-businesses-try-to-copy-austin-formula/#commentsMon, 15 May 2006 17:39:04 +0000http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/15/houston-businesses-try-to-copy-austin-formula/
One sign of success in any endeavor is imitation, and now Austin is getting its share of imitators. I’m not sure if Austin was the first city to use the “Keep XXXX Weird” slogan, but when we see cities like Louisville, and yes, even my hometown of Erie, Pa. (Update: According to Dennis in the comments below, Erie preceded “Keep Austin Weird” by at least 10 years), coopting the slogan for city promotional campaigns, things are truly getting weird.

]]>http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/15/houston-businesses-try-to-copy-austin-formula/feed/8Chronicle Responses to Letters Grow Longer and Longerhttp://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/14/chronicle-responses-to-letters-grow-longer-and-longer/
http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/14/chronicle-responses-to-letters-grow-longer-and-longer/#commentsMon, 15 May 2006 03:41:34 +0000http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/14/chronicle-responses-to-letters-grow-longer-and-longer/
The Postmarks section is one of the first things I turn to when reading the Austin Chronicle each week. Unlike letters to the Statesman, which tend to go short and contain reactionary uninformed thought blasts (somewhat like blogs, right?), letters to the Chronicle, though sometimes absurd and eccentric, are often well thought out and even clever. However, as of late, it seems that the Chronicle editorial staff has fallen victim to a “last wordism” in their responses to letters in their Postmarks section, often mocking letter writers who disagreed with their views. In a space where letter writers are supposed to be given the opportunity to express dissenting views to those of the Chronicle, this hectoring can amount to a “We’re right, we’re right, we’re always right” kind of superior dance that discourages others from expressing their views. It’s the Chronicle’s right–it’s their paper and they can do what they want.

I’ve noticed a trend over the past year or so of an increasing number of responses from Chronicle staff members to letters published – as if the editors and writers have to get the last word in. Moreover, the responses tend to be snooty and sarcastic rebuttals, direct slams against the letter-writers. It’s your rag, but I feel that responses are only justified when the letter-writer states something glaringly inaccurate, and maybe not even then. Letter-writers will tend to be a bit bombastic and/or critical of publications, but that doesn’t mean you have to reply with …

What? You say it is indeed your rag and that if I don’t like it, I don’t have to write a letter and be a target for ridicule. OK, maybe so, but did you really need five responses last week and the week before too? Oh, I’m being hyperbolic, and I can’t count, since it was only four?

Regardless, are Louis Black and Michael King, among others, so thin-skinned that they can’t let a few critical comments and even inaccuracies slide by without challenging them and name-calling back? After all, the letter-writers don’t often get a chance for a rebuttal to the rebuttal, do they?

The Chronicle responded: “The Chronicle’s policy has long been that staff responds only to errors of fact in the paper. Online is open territory. Recently, for a number of reasons, we have gotten lax over restricting the print responses. Thank you for bringing it up; we will be more careful in the future.”

But in the May 12th edition of the Chronicle, of the six letters printed, four received responses, with a couple of those letters (perhaps justifiably) receiving lengthy defensive retorts from both news editor Michael King and former Chronicle columnist and city editor Mike Clark-Madison. Of the 2,477 words in the letters section, 455 were devoted to editorial replies, amounting to almost 20 percent of the letters section being editorial opinion.

Now that the contentious Propositions 1 and 2 have been voted down, one would hope that the letters section could get back to its purpose of being a forum for public discourse on opinions expressed in the previous weeks’ publications. Though the online Postmarks forum somewhat mitigates this problem, the volume of comments there is low, and the majority of readers could have some difficulty even finding the forum. In additions, that leaves out those who only read the print edition.

The best piece of interactivity on the site is the Postmarks Online forum, which I noticed on a recent visit because it was promoted in a banner ad at the top of the page. However, on a subsequent visit the next day, I had a hard time finding any type of link to it. When I did eventually find my way to the online version of Postmarks (their letters to the editor section), the forum was promoted at the end of each entry, but in small type that read: “Discuss this letter in our online forum”. The forum itself isn’t very well-trafficked. I counted 50 topics on the first page, which dated back to April 19. In those 50 topics, I counted a total of 45 replies, 20 of which were on a single topic. Also by my rough count, those 50 topics had been viewed about 1,260 times. Take away the busiest topic – “Which Country Is More Dangerous” – which had been viewed some 186 times, and the remainder of those forum topics averaged about 22 page views each.

The reason I spent so much time (and math) on the forum is that the Chronicle took a shot at the Statesman earlier this year for that paper’s efforts in creating blogs for staffers and readers. Calling the Statesman’s efforts “bland” and “not ready for takeoff”, the Chronicle did concede this point:

(Full disclosure: the Chronicle does not currently offer blogs on its Web site, although a handful of readers have turned the “Postmarks” online forum into a running town hall meeting on everything under the sun. – Ed.)

The point is, there’s not a lot of activity in this area, which presents a terrific opportunity for the Chronicle to jump into blogging as a way to foster discussion and debate. Editor Louis Black’s Page Two column is tailor-made for online production. His passionate and acerbic style practically begs for immediate reaction, and I’d love to see Black engaged in a two-way discussion with his readers. Other featured writers – Moser, Jordan Smith, Christopher Gray – would all contribute greatly to the local scene if turned loose in a more interactive format.

In the past and now, the Chronicle has served as a respected voice for the progressive heart and soul of Austin, and a much-valued alternative to its rival, the Statesman. If it could welcome public discussion and criticism in both its print edition and a new online format (yes, we’re talking blog-like things like allowing comments on individual articles), I think it would only serve to enhance its reputation.

]]>http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/14/chronicle-responses-to-letters-grow-longer-and-longer/feed/5Need a date for the prom?http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/02/need-a-date-for-the-prom/
http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/02/need-a-date-for-the-prom/#commentsTue, 02 May 2006 18:26:04 +0000http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/02/need-a-date-for-the-prom/
We just found out that Iron Gate Studios is hosting its 2nd annual Prom fundraising event this Saturday, and guess what—we’re dateless (Using the royal “we’re dateless,” sounds a lot less pathetic than “i’m dateless.”). I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to attend, but if I could attend, it would be a lot more fun to have somebody to dance with while I was wearing my blue ruffled tuxedo shirt. But no worries, because tonight from 8-10 Iron Gate is holding a prom date auction at the Long Branch Inn (1133 E. 11th St.) featuring some of Austin’s “finest men and women”—which we (I) hope means not some people standing on street corners holding up cardboard signs or even members of Austin’s finest, however comely they may be. They will be total nubile hotties. Even if you have a potential date, you may just want to go tonight to see if you could bid up to something better, and avoid the awkward rejections and pitiful glances.

The prom itself will be graced with the presence of Travis County’s premier Journey cover band (are there more than one?) Odyssey. According to their MySpace page, they rock. Austin legend John Erler will be straining at the upper levels of his low vocal range to “faithfully” match the inimitable Steve Perry. Ironic or not, everybody has fun at a prom. If I can get a date, I will see you there.

]]>http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/05/02/need-a-date-for-the-prom/feed/2The Water Treatment Plant: Density Plus Sprawl?http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/04/17/the-water-treatment-plant-density-plus-sprawl/
http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/04/17/the-water-treatment-plant-density-plus-sprawl/#commentsMon, 17 Apr 2006 22:17:19 +0000http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/04/17/the-water-treatment-plant-density-plus-sprawl/
On the cusp of tonight’s meeting concerning the proposed relocation of the city’s Green Water Treatment plant from Cesar Chavez to the Guerrero Park on the East Side, it’s interesting to delve into the underlying reasons behind the move. As early as his 2005 State of the City Address, Mayor Will Wynn was calling for the plant’s relocation:

Also, we should be on the fast track today to decommissioning the Green Water Treatment Plant in downtown as a way to realize more vibrant density, add to the tax base, and preserve more open space. From my perspective, anyone who says they support the goals of ECT (Envision Central Texas) but is unwilling to consider massive redevelopment of four acres in downtown Austin doesn’t really support the goals of ECT. Yes, I understand that the Green Water Treatment Plant is a symbol for some. But anyone who would elevate a symbol of our quality of life over real steps to protect our quality of life is doing trade in rhetoric, not reality.

The mayor has been a major evangelist for the cult of density, and it makes sense to free up the four acres the treatment plant occupies downtown to allow for a central library and mixed use retail development. However, in a Statesman article from last August when Wynn officially called for the plant’s closure by this June, we discover another potential reason why it might be important to relocate the site in East Austin: “That would put the new plant in the proximity of the Texas 130 corridor, where planners expect a flurry of growth to take place when the toll road opens in 2007, he said.”

Could it be that moving the treatment plant from the central city to the East side would kill two birds with one stone? On one hand, it would encourage density and expand the tax base downtown, and on the other hand it would become an instrument supporting the sprawl that is already certain to occur along the Texas 130 corridor. It’s a Wynn-Wynn situation (pardon the pun). We don’t just get density—we also get sprawl—it’s a two-fer. The elimination of public parkland and loss of open space is just a convenient side effect that saves the city money.

]]>http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/04/17/the-water-treatment-plant-density-plus-sprawl/feed/2How’s That Beard Treating You?http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/04/17/hows-that-beard-treating-you/
Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:58:05 +0000http://austin.metblogs.com/2006/04/17/hows-that-beard-treating-you/
We’re in the middle of a beard resurgence not seen since the mid-’70s or the late Nineteenth Century. And from what I’ve seen around town, Austin men have taken to the trend like a flash mob piling in a phone booth. But with Austin experiencing record high temperatures over the weekend, it dawned on me that perhaps the early summer heat will put the kibosh on a few our hirsute brethren, forcing them to embrace the blade and bare their cheeks to the world again. As I ran the Town Lake trail yesterday at the hottest point of the afternoon (I’m a glutton for punishment), I spotted a redbeard, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the guy. Beards in winter seem logical, but a summer beard is what separates the men from the mice.
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